Feel the Power of the IDF!

KISUFIM, Israel (Reuters) - A battalion of soldiers crawls across
the desert sand with assault rifles cocked. It's a routine
exercise, but these are no ordinary troops - they are Arabs who
have chosen to fight for the Jewish state.

Yussef
Saluta, 20, an Israeli Arab soldier from the Desert
Reconnaissance battalion takes part in a drill near Kissufim in
southern Israel November 29, 2016.

While the vast majority of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are
Jews - and nearly all their conflicts have been against Arab
nations - a trickle of Israeli Arabs volunteer for the army.

A
portrait of Russian contractor Maxim Kolganov, who was killed in
combat in Syria, is pictured on a grave in his hometown of
Togliatti, Russia, September 29, 2016.

TOGLIATTI, Russia (Reuters) - The start of this year proved
deadly for one unit of about 100 Russian fighters supporting
President Bashar al-Assad's troops in northern Syria.

On Feb. 3, 38-year-old Maxim Kolganov was killed in a firefight
with rebels near Aleppo when a bullet pierced his body armor and
heart. Then, on March 9, the same unit came under shell-fire near
Palmyra, and Sergei Morozov, also 38, was hit and died on the way
to hospital.

Back in southern Russia, medals were delivered to their families:
the order of bravery, with certificates signed by President
Vladimir Putin. The medals, seen by Reuters, were intended to
honor the sacrifice they had made for their country.

Except Kolganov and Morozov were not employed by the Russian
state. They were in Syria as private contractors, a small part of
an army of such people who are being deployed secretly by the
Kremlin in Syria.

A
tank of Iraqi security forces is seen during a battle with
Islamic State militants in southeast of Mosul, Iraq, November 3,
2016.

Gogjali (Iraq) (AFP) - Elite Iraqi forces backed by artillery and
air strikes pushed towards the streets of Mosul on Friday,
battling die-hard jihadists defending the city where their
"caliphate" was born.

At dawn, fighters from the Counter-Terrorism Service bristling
with ammunition checked their weaponry and left Gogjali, the last
village on the eastern outskirts of Mosul.

Moments later, they were at a cemetery on the edge of the city
controlled by the Islamic State group, and Iraqi forces were
pounding the nearby Al-Karama neighbourhood with tank shells and
gunfire.

Plumes of smoke billowed into the sky from tyres set alight by
the jihadists in an attempt to provide cover from air strikes.

A senior member of Russia’s defense and security committee told
Russian TV that Norway has been added to the list of
potential targets for a nuclear strike after Norway agreed to
host 330 U.S. Marines for a rotational training deployment.

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) - A prominent Russian separatist commander
was assassinated in eastern Ukraine on Sunday evening, his allies
said on Monday, accusing Ukrainian government forces of murdering
him to try to destabilize an already fragile ceasefire.

Arseny Pavlov, a Russian national who went by the nom de guerre
"Motorola", was blown up in the lift of his apartment building in
Donetsk together with his bodyguard, according to Eduard Basurin,
deputy defense minister in the government of the self-styled
Donetsk People's Republic.

NIEUWEGEIN, Netherlands (Reuters) - A Malaysian airliner shot
down in eastern Ukraine was hit by a Russian-made Buk missile
launched from a village held by rebels fighting Ukrainian
government forces, international prosecutors said on Wednesday.

The findings challenge Moscow's suggestion that Malaysia Airlines
flight 17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014,
was brought down by the Ukrainian military. All 298 people on
board, most of them Dutch citizens, were killed.

There has been frequent spillover of fighting between the
factions in Syria into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, but,
according to Israeli media, this was the first time Iron Dome was
activated to intercept the errant fire.

The newly brokered cease-fire between the US and Russia
has paved the way for military cooperation in fighting terrorist
elements in Syria, seemingly closing the book on a window in time where
Russian and US jets were flying close enough to each other to risk a
potential clash between world powers.

But how does Russia's air force stack up against the US?
During Russia's stint in Syria, four of their latest and greatest Su-35 Flanker jets flew sorties just miles from the only operational fifth-generation fighter jet in the world, the US's F-22 Raptor.
Given the fundamental differences between these two top-tier fighter
jets, we take a look at the technical specifications and find out which
fighter would win in a head-to-head matchup.

Aleppo is one of Syria's largest cities and one of its most
divided. For years, control of the city has been split between
President Bashar Assad's forces and the rebels fighting his
authoritarian regime.

The fighting has set off a large-scale humanitarian crisis as
civilians are bombarded daily and areas are cut off from
receiving aid.

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president of the
United States, was roundly mocked on Thursday when he appeared not to know what Aleppo was during
an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

One of the most significant things about the G20 summit was
something that didn't happen.

Hangzhou didn't become Yalta. China didn't become Munich.

But Vladimir Putin sure wanted it to.

In fact, Russia's actions in and around Ukraine over the past
month appear to have been, at least in part, a big psy-op in the
run-up to the summit.

Russian
President Vladimir Putin sits before the start of the opening
ceremony of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou.

Moscow ginned up a fake crisis in Crimea in August, accusing
Ukraine of sending a team of agent saboteurs to the annexed
peninsula to carry out terrorist acts.
Feigning outrage, the Kremlin then abruptly pulled out of planned
four-party talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Francois
Hollande.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Soviet-era documents show that Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas worked in the 1980s for the KGB, the
now-defunct intelligence agency where Russian leader Vladimir
Putin once served, Israeli researchers said on Thursday.

The Palestinian government denied that Abbas, who received a PhD
in Moscow in 1982, had been a Soviet spy, and it accused Israel
of "waging a smear campaign" aimed at derailing efforts to revive
peace negotiations that collapsed in 2014.

NATO and Russia are in a missile race, and Poland may have just
raised the stakes.
The Polish government announced Tuesday that it would buy the
U.S. Army’s Patriot air-and-missile defense system, a move widely
seen as a response to Moscow’s upcoming deployment of
nuclear-capable missiles to Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea.

A
US Patriot missile system

Five other NATO countries already deploy the Patriot system
— which can knock down missiles, drones, and small aircraft — but
none are as far to the east as Poland, nor so close to
Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave which is already bristling with
missile systems and other advanced Russian military hardware.

A build-up of Russian military on Ukraine's border with the
Crimean region, which has been annexed by Moscow, could reflect
"very bad intentions," Ukraine's U.N. envoy warned on Thursday
after the U.N. Security Council discussed the growing tensions.

Ukrainian U.N. Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, who requested the
closed-door meeting of the 15-member council, said Russia had
amassed more than 40,000 troops in Crimea, seized by Moscow in
2014, and on the Ukrainian border.

Aleppo, which has been beset by constant violence since 2012, and the site of
unspeakable suffering from air strikes, ground fighting, and even chemical
weapons attacks, has become a humanitarian nightmare.

A
man carries an injured man after what activists said was shelling
from forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in
Aleppo's Al-Mashad neighbourhood March 20,
2015.A shortage of well-supplied hospitals has resulted in
countless deaths that might have been prevented had the mortally
wounded been able to seek medical treatment — a shortage of
doctors, many of whom have either been killed or fled Aleppo
since the fighting erupted, has made the situation even more
dire.

MARYINKA, Ukraine - Framed by a tiny cutout in the fortified
bunker, this particular piece of no-man's land is tinted a
blood-reddish orange by the setting summer sun.
It's hot as hell, and it's about to get hotter. When the sun goes
down, the guns start blazing. And all that separates the men at
their triggers is a grassy patch of land the size of a soccer
field that is heavily mined. If you're a Ukrainian soldier here,
you don't need binoculars to observe the enemy -- you just look
in his direction.

A
Grad multiple rocket launcher system fires during a military
exercise for Ukrainian army reservists at a shooting range near
the village of Goncharivske in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, June
22, 2016

It starts with a single shot from a Kalashnikov: Ziiip. Then
another: Ziiip. And three more: Ziiip. Ziiip. Ziiip. Each shot
whizzes dangerously closer. In the time it takes to boil an egg,
the situation escalates as the rifles are joined by .50-caliber
machine guns, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades that explode
with hollow thuds against the earth or cottages where the
soldiers eat and sleep, showering everything with shrapnel.
Within an hour, shells from howitzers and tanks -- and eventually
surface-to-surface Grad missiles, whose name is Russian for
"hail" -- begin pummeling the scarred steppe.

ISIS might be ceding territory in the Middle East, but it
hasn't given up the battle for hearts and minds.

The terrorist group is playing a long game, working
aggressively to indoctrinate children under its control to
groom the next generation of jihadis in its image.

While other terrorist groups around the world have also used
children, new reports reveal the unprecedented system ISIS
has created to raise the next generation of terrorists.

German newspaper Der Spiegel
talked to several children who explained how ISIS, also
referred to as IS or the Islamic State, methodically brainwashes
kids to ensure that even if its territory is wiped out, it'll
still have a loyal band of followers keeping the group alive.

The first images of what appear to be British special forces
operating on the ground in Syria have emerged, showing vehicles
patrolling near the scene of an attack by Islamic State.
The pictures were taken in June and were first published by the BBC.

It is believed to be the first time British forces have been
photographed operating inside Syria, where they are engaged in relatively small
numbers in wide-ranging roles that include surveillance, advisory
and combat.

The battle for Aleppo has the Arab world, Middle
East observers and Western policymakers on edge.
In what is likely a turning point in the long Syrian civil war, a
coalition of opposition fighters is attempting to break Bashar
al-Assad regime’s siege of the country’s commercial capital.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government – with Russian support – is
bombing rebel strongholds in the city which is still home to
250,000 people, according to the BBC.

A
rebel fighter sits with his weapon in the artillery academy of
Aleppo

Thanks to recent U.S. diplomatic overtures to deepen cooperation with Russia against the
Islamic State, or IS, and al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front, the
U.S. could be considered a partner in those airstrikes. The U.S.
overtures have been criticized as strategically inconsistent and Putin-pleasing.

As a student of American policy in the Middle East, I’d argue
that American efforts are key to the tumultuous trajectory of
Syria’s uprising-turned-war.

What’s less clear to me is how much U.S. President Barack Obama’s
approach prioritizes either the immediate needs of Syrians
suffering from war and terrorism or their aspirations for
self-liberation from authoritarian rule.

The war in eastern Ukraine has lately resembled the anecdote about
boiling a frog: the fighting has been slowly increasing in intensity,
but the international community has thus far acted as if nothing was
happening. Then, over the weekend, a car bomb went off wounding Igor
Plotnitsky, the head of the so-called breakaway Luhansk People’s
Republic, prompting Kyiv and the separatists to lob accusations at each other as to who was behind the attack. Nervous reports by Ukrainian officials that Russia was sending fresh tanks over the border into Donbas and massing troops
on the crossing into Crimea had Ukraine-watchers fingering their panic
buttons. Today, the Poroshenko Administration went as far as to announce
it was putting its forces on high alert in anticipation of some kind of
Russian attack. The frog looked set to leap out of the pot.

The Kremlin have admitted that Edward Snowden is a Russian agent for the FSB – Russia’s domestic intelligence agency.

Despite Snowden and his representatives repeatedly insisting that he is
not a Russian spy, his relationship with the Kremlin has come under
close scrutiny recently and has subsequently revealed his close ties and
allegiance with the Russian security services.

In
this exercise held on February 2016 at the Golan Heights, commanders in
the Nahal Brigade joined forces with the Armored Corps and the Combat
Engineering Corps to test their collaboration. Drones, combat
helicopters and dogs from the Oketz Canine Unit all took part in the
multi-faceted drill.

How panicked is the White House over the Ben Rhodes revelations on Iran?
Josh Earnest, who is usually hard to ruffle, went off on an unhinged rant against Republicans after being asked whether Rhodes would testify.

WATCH: IDF special
forces units are some of the best in the world and are prepared to
defend Israel against any and all threats; Watch as these elite soldiers
train to keep Israel and all her citizens safe.

Occasionally, foreign
media outlets publish reports of a mysterious explosion that occurred in
a neighboring country, the elimination of a terrorist organization's
senior leader, a convoy of trucks going up in flames. This is just the
tip of the iceberg of a secret operational world which operates almost
every night in different locations.

Russia and Israel have a long history of diplomatic and military
collaboration in the Middle East, dating back to the Arab-Israeli war of
1948, when Israel’s triumph over its neighbors was largely attributable
to Moscow’s military support. Following the Arab-Israeli war of 1967,
Israel established itself as a key U.S. ally, as the Soviet Union
partnered with a host of Arab nations — most importantly, Syria. Yet,
despite their history of having been on opposite sides for much of the
Cold War, since the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian Federation has
pursued an increasingly pragmatic foreign policy with Israel.

As Israel nears its 68th year of independence, Israelis can
take pride in the fact that they have much to celebrate. Unemployment is
low and standards of living are comparable to those of affluent Western
nations. Israel’s citizens have transformed a semi-arid land into an
oasis. Its innovative and resourceful people have turned the nation into
a technology giant. Water shortages that plagued the nation during its
formative years are now a thing of the past thanks to cost-effective
desalinization plants and other innovative water technologies.

Israel
maintains a highly developed and modern infrastructure and its
formidable military continuously ranks among the most powerful. Recent
natural gas finds off Israel’s coast have instantly transformed the
Jewish State into a major energy player with various nations eager to
sign deals and form partnerships. When natural disasters strike distant
countries, Israeli rescue and medical personnel are among the first on
the scene and are world renowned for their efficiency and effectiveness.

UKROBORONPROM enterprise SE “SpetsTehnoEksport” and Indian company
“Reliance Defence Limited” signed the memorandum on joint participation
in BMP-2 modernization for the Indian Army.

Cooperation primarily relates to the manufacture and supply of
components and systems for improving BMP mobility, modernization of
sighting and fire control systems. Indian park of different BMP-2
versions consists of about 2000 vehicles. Most of them require
modernization and combat characteristics improviement.

“We are happy to host you in Georgia and to be part of the noble
partnership,” said Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili at the
opening ceremony. “You are standing on the land which was protected by
my ancestors for centuries. You are standing together with men and women
from the Georgian Army who are defending our staple, our nation, on
battlefields across the world.”

The pilots of the US Air Force and the Israeli Air Force are the best in the world- and have a lot to learn from one another.
In another example of the unshakeable Israel-US alliance, a joint
training exercise was held aimed at preparing pilots for the
ever-changing realities in the Middle East.